Mechanical page-turner



MECHANICAL PAGE-TURNER Filed April 20, 1964 I n A. .11.: A

H a INVENTOR 27 Shqchor FIG-.3. BY 7 ATTORNEY United States Patent Oflice 3,277,595 Patented Oct. 11, 1966 3,277,596 MECHANICAL PAGE-TURNERAvi Shachar, Doar Na Merom Hagalil, Kibbutz Sasa, Israel Filed Apr. 20,1964, Ser. No. 360,933 6 Claims. (Cl. 40104) The present inventionconcerns leaf turners for books, bound music and the like.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a leaf turner forbooks, bound music and the like which is adapted to be operated bysimple mechanical means.

The invention is illustrated, by way of example only, in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a music stand equipped with the leafturner according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial elevational view thereof in the direction of thearrow of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section of the leaf turning mechanism according to theinvention on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to that of FIG. 1, with a motor substituted forthe actuation shown in FIG. 1.

The leaf turning mechanism according to the invention, generallyindicated by 1, is supported on an arm 2 extending from a conventionalmusic stand 3, which has collapsible legs 4 as known per se. To the topof stand 3, a book rest 5, which is made of two parts, collapsible ontoeach other, is attached. A cutout 5 is provided in the rest 5, throughwhich cutout a spiral 6 projects, the outer end of the spiral being bentoutward and merging into a loop 7. The inner end of spiral 6 is fixed toa sleeve 8 which is mounted by means of a setscrew 9 to a pawlsupporting member 10 loosely turnable on a shaft 11, the outer end ofwhich is threaded and extends through arm 2, being fixed thereto bymeans of a nut 12, 12' on either side of arm 2. A springy pawl 13 isfixed to and extends from the forward end of member 10 and is adapted toengage in a ramp depression 14 disposed in a disk 15 provided withinsleeve 8 immovably fixed on the front end of shaft 11 by means of nut 16with the interposition of a washer 17. A pawl 18 is fixed to the rearend of member 10 and is adapted to engage a ratchet tooth 19 provided inthe actuating member 20 turnable on shaft 11. This member has anexternal circumferential groove 21 in which a cable 22, one end of whichis fixed to said member 20, is adapted to be wound. The other end ofsaid cable extends downwards through a tensioning device 23 to the freeend of a foot pedal 24 articulated at 25 to a leg 4 of stand 3. Member20 is provided with a depression 26 in its outer end in which a spiralspring 27, loosely wound around shaft 11, is housed. One end of spring27 is fixed to said shaft and the other to said member 20. The end ofmember 20 is covered by a plate 28 through which shaft 11 looselyextends.

The leaf turner works as follows: the pages P of a note book, forexample, to be turned one after the other, are inserted between theturns of spiral 6 in such a manner that the loop 7 is placed behind thefirst page to be turned. When now, in the position of rest of themechanism, i.e. when a number of turns of cable 22 are wound aroundmember 20, the foot pedal 24 is depressed, a rotation of member 20results. This causes the engagement of tooth 19 with pawl 18 wherebyspiral 6 is turned. Loop 7 making a sweeping motion pushes top page Pslowly to the left (as seen in FIG. 1), and continues making a full turnso that now, since all the pages have been advanced by the spiral 6 forone turn, said loop comes to lie behind the page now uppermost.

When the cable is pulled and the member 20 is turned, spring 27 isautomatically tensioned. The length of cable 22 pulled by the foot pedal24 is such that member 20 makes one full turn. To this end the upwardsand downwands movement of the foot pedal 24 is controlled by means of anadjustable stop 29 abutting the floor when the pedal is depressed and astop 30 projecting sidewardly from the foot pedal and abutting againstthe bottom end of foot 4 when the foot pedal is released. When the footpedal is released, spring 27 turns member 20 in the opposite sense ofrotation, whereby tooth 19 is disengaged from pawl 18 and the cable isagain wound in groove 21. The member 10 is prevented from turning inthis same direction by the fact that pawl 13 engages in depression 14.It can thus be seen that while member 20 changes its direction ofrotation during the pulling and release of cable 22, member 10 alwaysturns in the same direction, i.e. it turns during the pulling of thecable and stands still during its release.

The spiral 6 may be of any suitable material, spring wires, plastic,sheet metal or the like. Instead of being mounted near the bottom of thesupport 5, the turning mechanism may be mounted near its top, a suitablecutout being provided therein.

Instead of the ratchet tooth and pawl mechanism described, any othersuitable clutch mechanism can be used, which, when actuated, assures onefull turn only of the spiral and prevents its turning in the oppositedirection. Operation by a motor, which upon actuation, by a pedal andswitch 34, makes one full turn each time, is shown in FIG. 4.

While the invention has been described in connection with and mounted ona music stand for turning music, it is, of course, applicable forturning the pages of any other kind of book and may be mounted on a bookstand to be fixed near a sickbed or the like. The music stand may,furthermore, be mounted on or be incorporated with a piano.

I claim:

1. A page turner for books and music notes mounted on a stand whichconsists essentially of a support for a book or bound music,characterized by a closely wound spiral extending perpendicularlyforward from the support, the front end of the spiral merging into anoutwardly extending arm, the spiral being adapted to hold between eachturn a page of the book or music in such a manner that the arm liesbehind the first page to be turned, the arm being of a length to extendat least past the centerline of the book or music when the spiral isrotated, the rear end of the spiral being fixed to means which eifectsaid rotation in one direction only and in intermittent steps of onecomplete revolution.

2. A page turner for books and music notes mounted on a stand whichconsists essentially of a support for a book or bound music,characterized by a closely wound spiral extending perpendicularlyforward from the support, the front end of the spiral merging into anoutwardly extending arm, the spiral being adapted to hold between eachturn a page of the book or music in such a manner that the arm liesbehind the first page to be turned, the arm being of a length to extendat least past the centerline of the book or music when the spiral isrotated, the rear end of the spiral being fixed to a sleeve attached toa pawl-carrying member turnable on a shaft when being engaged by thetooth of an actuating member turnable on the shaft by the pull of acable one end of which is attached to and wound on said actuatingmember, a spiral spring being provided within said actuating member toreturn it to its starting position after the pull of the cable has beenreleased.

3. A page turner for books and music notes mounted on a stand whichconsists essentially of a support for a book or bound music,characterized by a closely wound spiral extending perpendicularlyforward from the support, the front end of the spiral merging into anoutwardly extending arm, the spiral being adapted to hold between eachturn a page of the book or music in such a manner that the arm liesbehind the first page to be turned, the arm being of a length to extendat least past the centerline of the book or music when the spiral isrotated, the rear end of the spiral being fixed to a sleeve attached toa pawl-carrying member turnable on a shaft when being engaged by thetooth of an actuating member turnable on the shaft by the pull of acable one end of whi-ch'is attached to and wound on said actuatingmember, a pawl being provided on the pawl-carrying member to engage aramp depression on a plate fixed to the shaft in such a manner that saidpawl-carrying member and thus said spiral is prevented from making morethan one full turn when said cable is pulled.

4. A page turner for books and music notes mounted on a stand whichconsists essentially of a support for a book or bound music,characterized by a closely wound spiral extending perpendicularlyforward from the support, the front end of the spiral merging into anoutwardly extending arm, the spiral being adapted to hold between eachturn a page of the book or music in such a manner that the arm liesbehind the first page to be turned, the aim being of a length to extendat least past the centerline of the book or music when the spiral isrotated, the rear end of the spiral being fixed to a sleeve attached toa pawl-carrying member turnable on a shaft when being engaged by thetooth of an actuating member turnable on the shaft by the pull of acable one end of which is attached to and wound on said actuatingmember, a spiral spring being provided within said actuating member toreturn it to its starting position after the pull of the cable has beenreleased, the other end of said cable being attached to a foot pedalwhich when depressed exerts a pull on the actuating member.

5. A page turner for books and music notes mounted on a. stand whichconsists essentially of a support for a book or bound music,characterized by a closely wound spiral extending perpendicularlyforward from the support, the front end of the spiral merging into anoutwardly extending arm, the spiral being adapted to hold between eachturn a page of the book or music in such a manner that the arm liesbehind the first page to be turned, the arm being of a length to extendat least past the centerline of the book or music when the spiral isrotated, the rear end of the spiral being fixed to a motor which effectsone complete turn upon each actuation.

6. A music stand provided with a page turner comprising a closely woundspiral extending perpendicularly forward from the support of the book orbound music notes to be turned near the bottom of said support, thefront end of the spiral merging into an outwardly extending arm, thespiral being adapted to hold between each turn a page of the book ormusic in such a manner that the arm lies behind the first page to beturned, the arm being of a length to extend at least past the centerlineof the book or music when the spiral is rotated, the rear end of thespiral being fixed to means which effect said rotation in one directiononly and in intermittent steps of one complete revolution.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 938,085 10/ 1909Stragiotti et al. 84-486 2,885,806 5/1959 Storm et al -104 2,897,6188/1959 Russell 40104 3,053,000 9/1962 Schmitt 40-104 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO,Primary Examiner.

' W. J. CONTRERAS, ASSiXfanI Examiner.

1. A PAGE TURNER FOR BOOKS AND MUSIC NOTES MOUNTED ON A STAND WHICHCONSISTS ESSENTIALLY OF A SUPPORT FOR A BOOK OR BOUND MUSIC,CHARACTERIZED BY A CLOSELY WOUND SPIRAL EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLYFORWARD THE SUPPORT, THE FRONT END OF THE SPIRAL MERGING INTO ANOUTWARDLY EXTENDING ARM, THE SPIRAL BEING ADAPTED TO HOLD BETWEEN EACHTURN A PAGE OF THE BOOK OR MUSIC IN SUCH A MANNER THAT THE ARM LIESBEHIND THE FIRST PAGE TO BE TURNED, THE ARM BEING OF A LENGTH TO EXTENDAT LEAST PAST THE CENTERLINE OF THE BOOK OR MUSIC WHEN THE SPIRAL ISROATED, THE REAR